Mad Men: What Dictatorship of TV Channels Leads to

    “Our world is the best of all possible worlds!” (C) Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716)
    “... then everything in it is a necessary evil” (c) Francis Herbert Bradley (1846-1924)

    In a previous post, I promised to reveal the theme of the crisis of modern TV. So, let's start with the fact that in your current system of functioning of TV your favorite TV channel may be closed.



    The first reason is a conflict of interest that never wanes. This summer, for example, AMC Networks began to quarrel with Dish Network Corp because the latter did not want to renew the contract with the former because “AMC’s popularity indicators aren’t very active” - as a result, viewers who cut off the broadcast of the series widely known in narrow circles “ suffered Mad Men ”(Mad Men). Although this is some not very revealing example.

    But how do you like the CBS war and Time Warner Cable (basically, a conglomerate of CSI series)? What did they not share? Oh yes: Time Warner wants its products not to be broadcast in conjunction with Showtime products (Dexter fans know this studio). “Why would Warner make such tough demands?” You ask. And then that Warner owns HBO (mmm, Game of Thrones, Soprano) and wants to squeeze its main competitor out of the market. And now both companies are proving to each other and those around them which of them is worse (they even turned to the US Federal Telecommunications Commission). And all this will end with the loss of viewers who lose their favorite TV shows simply because the leaders of the two companies prefer to build dirty tricks on their friends instead of ... um, improving the quality of their products.

    But the matter does not end with litigation. What about idiots for exclusive shows? NTV +, for example, owns the rights to exclusive broadcasts of leading sporting events. It is on NTV-PLUS that shows of matches of the strongest European football championships, as well as broadcasts of world and European championships in many popular sports are held. Does this mean that people who NTV + is not happy with in many other ways, but who love sports, should fork out for it? I was particularly struck by the case in England, which took place a couple of years ago.

    Karen Murphy, who was showing English football on a Greek TV channel in her pub (since it was much cheaper than the "native" English alternatives), paid fines totaling 8 thousand pounds (12.5 thousand dollars). Murphy broke the law, since the rights to broadcast matches in the UK belong exclusively to Sky Sports and ESPN. Then, however, the EU Court ruled that the ban on the use of foreign decoders contradicts the principle of freedom to provide services - but the precipitate remained.

    Speaking about corporate wars and protecting intellectual property rights, one should not forget about piracy - it has become fashionable among TV network owners to sigh about what kind of pain in the ass torrents are (although progressive authors of Game of Thrones believe that piracy only encourages interest to their product and do not take any steps to “prohibit and not let go” as strictly as possible). But often they themselves are the source of the problem!

    Recently, CBS blocked access to its legal online content for Time Warner users, resulting in a “completely unexpected for everyone” surge of pirated activity. It was hard for me to believe this, but sometimes you can find as many fools in American business as in Russian politics.

    Two evils (focus groups and television channels) in total give a decrease in the quality of TV products produced on the screens. But I’ll talk about this next time.

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